Derek Lovley - Protein Nanowires for Sensing, Energy Harvesting & Wiring Cells to Electronics HD

Distinguished microbiology professor Derek Lovely of UMass Amherst discusses Protein Nanowires or e-PNs and their wide range of potential uses. Electrically conductive protein nanowires (e-PNs) are a revolutionary class of sustainable electronic materials. Native microbial e-PNs evolved for interspecies cell-to-cell electronic communication, but they can be mass-produced with low energy inputs from renewable feedstocks for diverse electronic applications. e-PNs show exceptional promise for sensing and novel forms of energy generation due to their unprecedented small diameters, biocompatibility, biostability and tunability. A broad range of different functionalities can readily be introduced into e-PNs with simple genetic manipulation of the structure of the monomer that assembles into the wires. e-PNs are remarkably robust. They function in water over a wiide range of pH and are amenable to standard processing procedures (heat, organic solvents) for the fabrication of nanowire devices. Examples of e-PNs designed for sensing specific substances of biomedical and environmental relevance are described and strategies for sustainable, renewable energy harvesting with e-PN devices are discussed. Derek Lovely is a distinguished professor of microbiology at the University of Massachusetts and a strategic scientist at the Wuhan University of Technology. His current bioelectronics research focuses on cell-to-cell electrical communication in microbial communities; elucidating the diversity structure and function of electrically conductive protein nanowires in the microbial world; and the design of synthetic protein nanowires for sensor and energy harvesting applications.